Restatement of Restitution Rules for Nazi-Confiscated Art Veranstaltungsreihe der Forschungsstelle Provenienzforschung, Kunst- und Kulturgutschutzrecht

Dear friends and colleagues, ladies and gentlemen,

Five years ago, fundamental research started in Bonn to develop a "Restatement of Restitution Rules for Nazi-Confiscated Art" (RRR). Since then, around 1,300 cases from six jurisdictions – Germany, Austria, the Netherlands, France, the United Kingdom and Switzerland – have been recorded and their normative content comparatively scrutinized: Which „tipping points“ for evaluation recur? How have these points been handled in each case and why? Which arguments are systematically convincing in relation to others ("grammar of reasons"), which are less so? What are the principles that guide the decision-making process? Which procedural building blocks from current practice are convincing according to general procedural theory ("best practices"), which less so? The fundamental experience to be taken from the project is one that has always been described in comparative legal studies: only a comparison with others enables a true understanding of one's own.

Our comparative work has resulted in a project text of around 1,100 pages: Eight articles – Art. 1 RRR to Art. 8 RRR – outline the central recurring issues in formulated rules, which are intended to reflect the normative essence of the issues. Some rules are rather concise, others concern a highly complex set of issues and therefore contain many paragraphs. The text of each rule is followed by a commentary explaining how the proposed rule was generated from practice, which tendencies in practice support the rule and which other tendencies appear to run counter to it. Country reports then analyze the respective practice of the individual jurisdictions, always starting with an abstract overview of the respective issue. The case material referred to is then systematically organized in abstract summaries. We would like to present our work to you at conferences on

September 4, 2024, at the University of Bonn, Germany, and on

September 16, 2024, at New York University (NYU), New York City, USA.

We cordially invite you to attend! You will receive more details about the respective events soon.

The "Restatement of Restitution Rules for Nazi-Confiscated Art" (RRR) is a team effort. Most of the team members decided to write dissertations on their areas of expertise in the project. This enabled the team to build up a solid basis for the project work. In the run-up to the conferences on September 4, 2024, and September 16, 2024, we would like to introduce some of our team members to you in personal talks - the "RRR Talks". Current developments will certainly be discussed, such as e.g. the reform of the German Advisory Commission or the draft bill on a German "Law to facilitate the enforcement of the restitution of cultural property seized as a result of Nazi persecution", but the focus will be on the foundational research work submitted in the PhDs and their respective authors.

The Opening Lecture took place on 13 June 2024. Please find a link to the recording here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m_K_hAjs8xw.

This event will be devoted to the practice in Austria and in Switzerland.

A further event is planned for

Wednesday, 10 July 2024, 7 p.m. Bonn time

on the Netherlands and France, with Dr Tessa Scheller, M.Sc. and Dr Johannes von Lintig, LL.M. All texts have been published or are about to come out in the publication series of the Research Centre for Provenance Research, Art and Cultural Property Protection Law. Further dates for „RRR Talks“ are being planned.

We cordially invite you to attend! You will receive the link to the event series by registering at sekretariat.weller@jura.uni-bonn.de. We will send out the link to all registrants shortly before the first event. Please note that the lectures will be recorded and uploaded on the internet shortly after the respective event. By dialling in you declare your consent to this proceeding.

Please do not hesitate to forward our invitation to interested people in your area if you wish.

Data protection: We store your e-mail address on the basis of your express consent, previous individual contacts and/or presumed scientific interest in the respective event. We will of course delete your e-mail address if you wish us to do so. We will also be happy to provide you with further information on your data (please contact sekretariat.weller@jura.uni-bonn.de).